AP PhotoChicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, right, puts a move on the Detroit Pistons' Will Bynum in the first half of the Bulls' overtime victory Sunday.

AUBURN HILLS – For all but a few
seconds late in the second half, the Detroit Pistons raised their
mental acuity to the level of the Chicago Bulls, perhaps with some
help from the NBA-leading team's own diminished intensity.

When those last few seconds of the
fourth quarter hit, and the Pistons left the Bulls with a narrow
glimmer of victory, it was all over.

Derrick Rose's 3-pointer with 6.4
seconds left in regulation tied the game, and the Bulls trailed for
only a few seconds in the overtime portion of a 100-94 victory at The
Palace of Auburn Hills.

Rodney Stuckey missed a jumper
from the left elbow just before the end of regulation which left the
score 86-86. More important, Stuckey missed three of his six
free-throw attempts in the last 1:48 of the fourth quarter, when one
more conversion might have sent the Pistons to their signature win of
the season.

The Pistons led momentarily in
overtime, after a Stuckey 3-pointer to beat the shot clock made it
89-88, but the Bulls responded with a 9-2 run to push their lead to
as many as six.

The Bulls (46-14) have the NBA's
best record and will be one of the favorites to win the league
championship.

But after a slow first quarter,
the Pistons turned up their defensive intensity – they held the
NBA's leaders in second-chance points without a follow-up score for
most of the second half – and looked like they might score a big
upset until the final seconds of regulation.

With a chance to close the game
out, Stuckey twice split a pair of free throws, first with 16.1
seconds left, then 14.2 left.

In between, the Pistons forced a
five-second violation with tremendous defense that in-bound passer
Luol Deng couldn't solve. Yet when Stuckey left the door cracked,
Rose took advantage by nailing his 3-pointer to tie the game.

The Pistons trailed by eight
points in the third quarter until a 12-2 run, started by 3-pointers
from Ben Gordon and Brandon Knight, pushed them into a 66-64 lead
entering the fourth.

They extended the lead to as many
as six points early in the fourth quarter before a sequence with 4:31
left, when Charlie Villanueva – playing his most meaningful minutes
of the season – was called for a questionable flagrant-one foul on
a Derrick Rose layup attempt, even though he was between Rose and the
basket.

Villanueva also was hit with a
technical for arguing the call and the free throws on the foul, the
technical, and a subsequent fouls after Chicago kept possession added
up to four points and a 77-76 Bulls lead.